The connection between the cultural phenomenon TV show Severance — which I am currently blogging about at severanceblog.com — and Michel de Montaigne is most clear in the sage’s brilliant “Of the inconsistency of our actions” essay and especially his bits and pieces quotation:
We are all patchwork, and so shapeless and diverse in composition that each bit, each moment plays its own game. And there is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and other people.
And one of the most emotionally unsettling aspects of the show is the way that the innies are fully aware that they cannot exist outside of the Lumon SVRD floor, that to lose their jobs would constitute their death. But don’t we also live our own lives this way at times?
I, for one, have a persona that I’ve known since childhood. It is a yearning soul with vague wishes that cannot be fulfilled. I have never fully understood the desires of his soul, but I love this persona as if it’s my child. This persona is sweet and sincere, and seems deeply attached to my creativity. To be awoken, this persona has to attach to someone else, but in a distant, worshipful way. Real relationships send this persona away, until out of nowhere it finds an opportunity to re-emerge.
This persona forms attachments that don’t exist purely in imaginary states, they form from people in the real world, so there’s an element of risk to it, danger of being fully rejected or even stigmatized. So it’s a fragile persona and I’m often frustrated by his needs.
But at this moment, I fear that my persona could disappear and never return. Have I reached the age where I’m in my final yearning? That once this one passes, there will be no more? I hold this persona tight and soothe him, knowing he will never get what he desires, but more sad for the knowledge that his life may soon pass.
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